ST. LOUIS – This game had no right to go to overtime, let alone two. For 45-plus minutes, the Denver Pioneers were completely outclassed and outworked by fellow NCHC power Western Michigan Broncos. But that’s the funny thing about Denver Hockey and the playoffs. Sometimes, the balance of play, shots on goal, and yes, the score don’t matter. After killing off a Hagen Burrows holding penalty more than four minutes into the third period, the Pioneers flipped the script, found a window, and tied the game. Outshot 32-8 through two periods, the Pioneers never quit and forced their way back into the game and forced two overtimes when they were left for dead early in the third…unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. Their quest to repeat and earn the program’s third title in four years abruptly ended on the stick of Owen Michaels. That’s hockey.
If you watched the game, you know the first two periods could be summed up in two words: unmitigated disaster. From the moment the puck dropped, the Pioneers were completely outclassed, outmatched, and outworked by the Broncos to such a degree that it was difficult if not impossible, to reconcile that it was, in fact, the same players in crimson & gold that beat Providence and Boston College in Manchester two weeks ago. And if it wasn’t for Matt Davis’ typical playoff brilliance, things could have been even worse.
“He was ready to go tonight through the first two periods,” DU head coach David Carle said of his goaltender. “We can all speculate what the score could have been without him in the net after two. And he was at the top of his game and kept it at two. Kept our team within range. And a huge part of why we got to overtime.”
As the Pioneers mounted their third-period comeback, sparked by a second-chance goal from Aidan Thompson nearly seven minutes into the third and capped with Jared Wright’s crease-crashing poke – it was hard to ignore the flipped parallels between this game and the NCHC championship game three weeks ago between the same teams. In that game, DU owned the first two periods and skated to a 3-0 lead before WMU stormed back with three goals in the third to tie it and force overtime in a game that had no right to go that far. Tonight, it was as though the hockey gods remembered that, flipped the script, and pressed play.
The only difference? They still gave Western Michigan the game-winning goal just seconds into the second overtime – off of a tough bounce off of Zeev Buium’s stick, no less.
And that’s how the Pioneers’ 2024-25 season, the sixth Frozen Four in nine years, and the most prolific senior class in program history’s careers all ended.
” [I’m] so proud of their efforts, their contributions,” Carle said of this senior class. “Carter King, Connor Caponi, Jack Devine and Matt Davis and the guys who were in their class who departed early. They end with two championships, three frozen fours and the most wins in Denver Hockey history.”
Yes, there were some key moments throughout the game that were, shall we say, questionably officiated that contributed to the outcome – the uncalled slew foot by a Bronco on Buium behind Denver’s net and the possible tripping call (did he lose an edge? Feel free to debate) by Michaels on Aidan Thompson immediately before he scored Western’s second goal to name a couple – but the bottom line is the Pioneers were just barely not good enough to come away with the victory and a chance at college hockey immortality on Saturday.
“I thought the refs missed two trips on [Buium] where they took his feet out,” Carle mused. “But that’s just me. One led to a 2-on-1 in the overtime. That’s hockey, and I get it, it’s overtime. They missed a call on us at the end of the third period, a hold. Goes both ways.”
Jack Devine was the last player off the ice. Connor Caponi struggled to find the right way to capture his emotions. Matt Davis, one of the best and certainly the most clutch goaltender in program history, had no words. And captain Carter King, this year’s guiding light on and off the ice, stood strong through the obvious pain. This team, led by its decorated senior class, left it all out on the ice tonight.
It just wasn’t enough.
There will be plenty of time over the coming weeks to diagnose what happened this season. But there is one thing for sure – this team was battle-tested and simply refused to go quiet into the good night. Hell, this was the fourth-straight time that Denver went to overtime in the national semifinal. In the last two, they were the ones to come out on top. The puck just didn’t bounce their way tonight when they needed it to most.
“We’ve been in this game where we found the right side of it,” Carle reminisced. “I think back to the Michigan game in Boston, [Luke] Hughes had a two on one and the puck rolled on him and we come down and we make the play. This tournament is so damn hard to win.”
Denver wants 11. Denver will get 11. But thanks to one bad bounce off of their Hobey Baker finalist defenseman’s stick, hanging that 11th banner will have to wait at least another year.
That’s hockey.
Top photo courtesy Jim Rosvold via The NCHC
Thank you, Pioneers, for a great year. Proud of the Boone Boys and hats off to the great seniors.
That’s too bad.
One of the worst two quarters of DU hockey I’ve seen. That includes the Minnesota St. final two years ago. Western Michigan had our number. Big time. I was shocked we got it to OT and had a chance to win. Matt Davis was simply on fire during playoff hockey!
We’ve been spoiled the last several years. I just hope we can keep David Carle. He is total class act. Congratulations Pioneers on another great year!
Thank you Pioneers Hockey for another great year! It’s really fun to be a fan of such an outstanding team. Thanks especially to outgoing seniors, Jack Devine, Carter King, Matt Davis and Connor Caponi, as well as to others who are moving on to pro hockey. We’ll miss watching you play.
Well done indeed for the Senior class. Most wins is a record that will hard to match or exceed.
Davis kept us in the game longer than we deserved. Western Michigan finally cashed in a chance.
Best to everyone involved in a successful Hockey program.
Thumbs down to the administration for its pitiful support of the band.
I’ll have more to say on St. Louis later, but as much as I love the Pios, the better team was Western Michigan and the Broncos fully deserved to advance.
The Pios didn’t play their best game, but the reason for that was largely due to the WMU Broncos, who elevated their game more than the Pios were able to do so. DU was scrappy enough in the third to get a couple of bounces and had a shot to steal the game in the OTs, but the shots just weren’t good enough. Had DU won that game, it would have been pure, felonious larceny.
Certainly, rotating 5 D took a bigger toll on the Pios than they would have liked, forcing Buium to record 51 minutes of ice time, and Devine (and perhaps others) were also banged up, which happens at this time of year. Davis did his best to keep the Pios in it with multiple saves, but WMU put three pucks over his right shoulder up high and that was clearly by design.
Congrats to DU’s senior class, who put it all on the ice. This is DU’s best senior class by the numbers, and in my 40+ years of being a Pioneer fan, these eyes have never seen a better senior group.
Hats off to Zeev Buium, who is the most purely talented Denver d-man since Craig Redmond in the early 1980s, who had a DU record 54 points as a 16/17 year old in his one and only freshman year at DU in 1982-83. He would go on to join the Canadian Olympic Team & got drafted 6th overall (first round) and then went on to the NHL. Hobey winners Will Butcher and Matt Carle were also highly talented, but they didn’t make your jaw drop the way Buium could. Zeev is going to sign with Minnesota very soon and will be in the NHL by next weekend.
In short, getting to the Frozen Four was something of overachievement for a 8/9 PWR, three-seed Pio team.
Be happy for them.
Hooray, Broncos. Now let’s all pretend that DU cares because we are in the same conference.
2 early departure pro signings? Looks like their eyes were focused on playing professionally in April and not on securing a National Championship first.
This one still stings, but as was the case a few weeks ago in the NCHC championship game, the better team won, no question. WMU clearly was the class of the conference and deserved everything they earned this year. Hell of a team and a hell of a run they went on.
Really proud of this DU squad and certainly this senior class.
I’m curious what the early feelings are on next season. With the senior class gone, along with the early departures and a freshmen class from last fall that wasn’t overly impactful, is 2025-26 going to be a rebuild………
All the marks of an elite D corps, probably a split tendy at the start, and the question of where the scoring will come from. I don’t think we will have the top 3 guys in assists in the country again, but I do think we will see players take the leap into big time scoring contributor roles. We’ve been spoiled by our freshmen classes the last 4-5 years, but even in a “down” year for recruiting Reeder and Fischer look like they could hit 35-40 point seasons before they leave. Truth is we have no idea what the ceiling of these freshmen will be in this program.